Andrine Hegerberg one to watch when Birmingham play Manchester City in front of record Women's Cup final crowd

Former Leeds Ladies star Lucy Ward previews a record-breaking FA Cup final

Birmingham and Manchester City will go head-to-head in the final (Getty)

We will witness the highest ever attendance for a women’s FA Cup Final on Saturday – with the 34,500 tickets for the Birmingham City v Manchester City game sold by the start of this month making it destined to surpass last year’s 33,000, when Arsenal Ladies beat Chelsea.

When I played in the Leeds side who lost 5-0 to Arsenal in the 2006 final, the crowd was around 15,000 – still good, even a decade or so back – though the women’s game has moved on in the last decade. It’s more competitive now, with players from all clubs training more.

We knew we were probably going to lose to Arsenal and it wasn’t a great match-up, but you are not likely to get a 5-0 scoreline these days. Even though Birmingham are the underdogs, they’ll give City a very good game and could conceivably win it.

The elephant in the room as we discuss the set-piece occasion is an established WSL1 club, Notts County being disbanded out of the blue last month on the eve of the season, leaving full time staff and players searching for new jobs. Lots of questions to answer, not least from Alan Hardy, owner of Notts County who made the decision. It raises the question of how clubs who are not in the Premier League can sustain a women's team when they are seen as the poor relations.

Birmingham may be a surprise participant in the final, but not for those who know how they’ve quietly built a squad of young, hungry internationals with a sprinkling of older experienced heads and foreign internationals. Despite losing key players in close season (including Kirsty Linnett to Notts County) they’ve recruited astutely with experienced England international forward Ellen White a stand-out acquisition.

England international White has been a superb acquisition for Birmingham (Getty)

Look out, too, on Saturday for the 23-year-old Norwegian Andrine Hegerberg, who has a slight frame and yet has supreme technical ability. Her younger sister Ada, who plays for Lyons, is the superstar of that family, by virtue of the goals she scores, but Andrine has the ability to make a huge contribution at Wembley.

I expect Birmingham to produce the kind of game they did in the 1-1 draw at the Etihad at the start of May - compressing the space in midfield and making it difficult for Jill Scott, Keira Walsh and Carli Lloyd to operate. The Midlands team’s outlook will be defensive – trying not to concede – and then looking to capitalise on opportunities. Their defence stars PFA young player of the season Jess Carter.

Manchester City have more of the household names and are the reigning WSL champions with the rest of the league desperately hanging onto their coat tails in terms of recruitment and infrastructure. Steph Houghton and Lucy Bronze have established themselves as leading defenders in world football. And of course there's Carli Lloyd whose presence at City you might say is a women’s game equivalent to a Messi/Ronaldo move here.

Lloyd is one of the finest players in the game (Getty)

I expect it to be tight, with the winners perhaps the team who react best to the pressure of Wembley, the big crowd and the occasion. My own experience in 2006 brought me devastation very early on. I put the ball into my own net from a miscued header from a corner. Heading was always one of my strengths but I got my angles wrong and all I remember is seeing my face on the big screen – and the goal being replayed. If a gate had been open I would have been tempted to run out of the stadium. Even a year later I struggled to talk about it.

Manchester City do have players who eat pressure for breakfast so you'd expect them to come out on top. But this is the FA Cup Final. I can vouch for the fact that things don't always go to plan.

Lucy Ward is a former Leeds Ladies and England under-21 player and now a BBC co-commentator and match analyst